The global beverage industry, including soft drinks, beers, ciders, spirits and wines, was valued at $1.4 trillion in 2008. The industry includes roughly 1,500 soft drink brands and about 20,000 beer brands. Many of these brands package their beverages in metallic beverage containers. As a result, approximately 80 billion metallic beverage containers are used every year globally.
Metallic beverage containers offer bottlers, distributors, and retailers an ability to stand out at the point of sale because metal beverage containers provide ideal surfaces to decorate with brand names, logos, designs, product information, and/or other preferred indicia for identifying, marketing, and distinguishing the beverage container and its contents from other products and competitors. Currently the container body is the primary surface of a beverage container that is decorated. However, container bodies and the decorations thereon are frequently obstructed during consumption of a beverage by the consumer's hand. Further, the alignment between decorations on the container body and the pour opening of the container end closure is random and therefore the decoration may be positioned away from the consumer during consumption.
Metal end closures provide a unique and effective surface for decorating with advertising and marketing indicia in new and creative ways. Unlike the container body, consumers naturally align the end closure to open and drink from the container. Thus, the end closure is positioned to be viewed by the consumer. Further, the end closure is typically not obstructed or blocked during consumption of the beverage. However, end closures are frequently left undecorated because there are several disadvantages with the known methods of decorating them. Therefore, container end closures provide an underutilized opportunity for differentiating products at the point of sale and for attracting consumers.
Container end closures, or shells, are formed separately from the container body. The manufacture of end closures requires a number of processing steps collectively referred to as a conversion process and is generally illustrated and described in “How Ball Makes Beverage Ends,” available at http://www.ball.com/images/ball_com/product_options_files/How_Ball_Makes_Beverage_Ends.pdf (last visited Jun. 13, 2014) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,533,518, which are each incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. During the conversion process, the end closures are transported to a number of processing stations. Typically, a shell press punches out circular blanks from a roll or coil of a metal material and forms the blanks into shells. A curler forms a peripheral curl around a circumference of the shells and forms a countersink in the shells. Liners apply sealing compounds to the shells. A conversion press then converts the shells into end closures. The orientation of the shells entering the conversion press is random because there is no need, or reliable method, for orienting the shells in the current conversion process. The conversion press contains multiple progressive die sets which raise a rivet in the center of the shell, forms severable scores to define a tear panel and a pour opening, and connects a pull tab to the rivet. The end closures are then bagged, palletized, and stored until needed to seal a filled container body.
Current manufacturing methods limit the types and locations of decorations that can be applied to the end closures. One known method of decorating end closures applies the decoration to the metal stock material before forming the shells. Examples of this method are described in WIPO Publication Number WO 2007/007102, UK Patent No. 2,428,659, and UK Patent No. 2,428,668 which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. Although both coils and cut sheets of metal stock material can be decorated before the shells are formed in the conversion process, indexing and printing decorations on coils and cut sheets is complicated and cost prohibitive. In addition, there is a high probability of damaging the decoration when the stock material is used to form the end closures in the conversion process. For example, if the decoration is not properly registered with the shell press a portion of the decoration may be cut off. The decoration may also be intersected and damaged by scores or positioned in an area obstructed from view by the pull tab. Additionally, the decoration can be damaged by tools used in the conversion process.
Another known method of decorating end closures involves decorating the shells before the shells enter the conversion press. However, because shells are not oriented when they enter the conversion press, the decoration can be intersected by scores, positioned beneath the pull tab, or located partially on the tear panel. As a result, the decoration may be hidden from view by the tab or damaged when the tear panel is opened.
Methods of decorating converted end closures after the tear panel is formed and the pull tab is attached to the central panel are also known. One such method uses an optical means of orienting converted end closures prior to decorating the end closures. However, the known methods of decorating converted end closures are generally slow and/or do not apply decorations in predetermined areas of the end closure because the end closures are not oriented before the decoration is applied.
Another method or orienting an end closure is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,524,048 to Tsukada et al. (“Tsukada”), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Tsukada generally describes an apparatus that detects a mark or pattern on an end shell and then orients an end shell. A tab is subsequently fixed to the oriented end shell. Yet another method of orienting an end closure is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,968 to Stelter (“Stelter”) which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Stelter generally describes a method and apparatus that uses a temporary orientation tab positioned on a lower side of an end closure to rotate the end closure to a predetermined position. However, the methods described by Tsukada and Stelter are generally slow and not suited for the commercial container industry which requires an apparatus and method capable of orienting and decorating end closures at significant production speeds of at least several thousand end closures per minute.
Due to the numerous limitations associated with the existing process of manufacturing and decorating end closures, there exists an unmet need for an economical, fast, and reliable method and apparatus for orienting post-conversion end closures to enable the application of decorations and other preferred indicia to specific areas of the end closures.